Most Important Developments in HR for October 26th

A new report, Women in the Workplace 2018, by Sheryl Sandberg's LeanIn.Org and McKinsey, paints a bleak picture of gender diversity in corporate America. The multiyear survey, the largest study of its kind, gathered data over four years from 462 companies employing 20 million people. The result? Women are vastly underrepresented at every level, and the gaps come in hiring and promotions. Men land 54 percent of jobs while women get 46 percent. For promotions, it's even worse. Men hold 62 percent of manager jobs while women hold 38 percent. What companies (and by "companies" we mean HR) can do to combat this is establish rock-solid, clear, consistent criteria for hiring and performance reviews, because when both are subjective, bias inevitably creeps in. It's not enough to just talk about gender diversity anymore. WSJ

Unilever CHRO Leena Nair gave a smack-down interview to LinkedIn this week about the role of HR. To her, there's no other way to do the job than to be strategic, staying ahead of the curve and thinking of changes before they happen. "I get annoyed by all these articles that say HR is in service of the business. That's such a regressive way of looking at it. We ARE the business." You go, girl! CHROs must lead companies to really put people at the center of the agenda, she says, not just give the issue lip service. Instead of going on about how people are a company's greatest asset, blah, blah, blah, show Nair the money. How much of it is spent on people shows how valuable they really are to a company. To that end, she says, CHROs and CFOs must work closely together. Too many financial decisions get made without input on how they will affect employees. LinkedIn

The gig economy is poised to disrupt, well, everything and now it's come for HR. Uber is getting into the staffing business. It's called Uber Works, and the tech giant is testing it in the Windy City right now. It's about hooking temp workers up with gigs. No word on whether the temp workers will stay in the Uber system, sort of like Uber drivers, or if it's a one-and-done system that will require workers to constantly look for jobs on an as-needed basis. This B2B solution could be a juggernaut that rolls over recruiters, corporate HR, and other gig-finding companies like the Chicago-based Shiftgig. While it's not yet known how successful the new venture will be, one thing is for sure. The gig economy is changing the future of work as we speak. Chicago Tribune

How many times have you heard laments about "the robots" taking over our jobs? With every new day bringing a new development in AI (Siri looks quaint and old-fashioned now, doesn't she?), it has even tech-savvy people wondering. But if people want to "future-proof" their careers in an increasingly teched-up marketplace, it requires a shift in that thinking, and not just for employees and managers but for HR, too. In the not-so-distant future, we'll likely be managing teams made up of humans and AI machines, and that's going to require grasping the intricacies of human-tech interactions, which in turn will require more training for managers. Fast Company

Did the dire warnings about the job-killing effects of a $15 minimum wage in Seattle, a law they passed a few years ago, pan out? Turns out, not so much. Fast-food restaurants still need people to wash dishes and flip burgers even if they have to pay them $15 an hour. In fact, employment in the restaurant industry in Seattle is on the rise and the economy is booming. But the law had CFOs and CHROs wringing their hands, imagining the need for layoffs and other cost-cutting measures that would tank the city's economy. Much of the outcry came after a study into the effects of a minimum wage hike on the economy that, in retrospect, was flawed. It didn't include large companies with more than one location ... like McDonald's and Walmart and others that employ the lion's share of minimum-wage workers. Bloomberg

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